Excavator



(No Model.)

MQGLELLAN O. GUY. BXGAVATOR.

No. 597,578. Patented Jan. 18, 1898.

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UNITED STATES PATENT @rmcn.

MCCLELLAN O. GUY, OF SOAMMON, KANSAS. v

EXOAVATO R.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 597,578, dated January 18, 1898.

Application filed August 11, 1896. Serial No. 602,414. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, McOLnLLAN O. GUY, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Scammon, in the county of Cherokee and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Excavators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to excavators, and more specifically to excavators used for removing the overlying earth covering a vein of coal or other mineral, and I accomplish this object by plowing up ol loosening the overlying earth and carrying it by means of scrapers from over the vein of coal or other mineral that it is desired to reach and dumping it at a point where it will not again interfere with the work by means of a drum or windlass operated bysteam or other suitable power, the drum being supported or mounted in a frame and drawing a cable having plows or scrapers hitched thereto, the said cable passing around sheaves mounted in the ends of a block supported by a frame at an operative distance from the drum and having its ends fastened to said drum after wrapping a portion of the cable around said drum, as and for the purpose hereinafter more particularly described.

Many veins of coal and deposits of mineral lie at a depth so near the surface of the earth that they cannot be mined with safety or worked with profit by methods heretofore in use, owing to the fact that the vein or deposit is thin or light and the overlying earth, being thin or saturated by rains or snows, caves in; but by my improved excavator such veins can be worked with safety and with profit if not over ten or fifteen feet below the surface.

In the accompanying drawings, in which the same letters and numerals refer to like parts in all the figures of the drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of my improved excavator. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is an end view of the frame carrying the sheave block. Fig. 4: is a detail sectional view of the top of said frame. I

In carrying out my invention I use a strongly-constructed frame A, supporting a drum 1, journaled therein and having a belt or chain pulley fixed at one of its ends. This frame A is fixed in position by covering its base with earth and staying it with guy-ropes made fast to stakes at suitable distances. Opposite this frame A and facing the latter is another frame B, supporting a block with sheaves, around which is carried a rope or cable which is attached at its ends to the drum in said frame A. The drum 1 is supported at its ends by the cross-pieces 5, joining the tops of the uprights at and connected with each other only by the drum which they support. The drum 1 may be a foot or more in diameter and twenty five feet or more in length. In practice I have found the dimensions named to do satisfactory work. The dimensions of the drum should depend, however, to a certain extent on the available power to be had. The frames that support the drum 1 consist of horizontal sills 3, each sill having set therein two uprights 4, which converge at their upper ends and are joined at their upper ends by cross-heads 5, in which are journaled the ends of the drum 1 by means of the shafts or axles 6, on one of which is a pulleywheel 2 for the belt or chainfor revolving the drum. The uprights 4: are formed with tenons on their lower ends which rest in mortises in the sills 3, being secured therein by pins or bolts.

Frame 13 may be placed at a distance of from fifty to three hundred feet from frame A, according to the length of the cable, the power to be used, or other conditions, and consists of three standards 7, though more may be used according to the number of sheave-blocks to be supported, and they are placed about an equal distance from each other and are of about the same length. At the upper ends of these standards 7, on the rear side thereof, are bolted or attached in any suitable manner two cross-bars 8, parallel to each other, having an intervening space and forming ways for a pulley-block 10, having-sheaves C O pivoted in its ends and revolving in a horizontal plane. A rope or cable 9 passes around the sheaves, having its ends securely attached to the drum 1 at a distance from eight to ten feet apart. The pulley-block 10 has a sheave C axled in each end and is constructed of two beams placed parallel one above the other and held together at a point midway of the ends by a cross-piece 11, which projects inward between the ways 8 and is secured thereto by a pin or bolt 12, passing through 31301" tures formed vertically through said ways or by any means that will permit said block to be moved readily back and forth along the ways in a horizontal direction. This block may be from eight to ten feet long and should be of sufiicient length to hold the portions of the cable passing around the sheaves far enough apart so that the men working with the plows or scrapers attached to one part of the cable will notinterfere with the men work ing at the plows or scrapers hitched to the other part of the cable passing around the sheave at the opposite end.

In placing the cable upon the drum the cable is passed through the block back of the pulley-wheels or sheaves in the block, and then one end of it is wound a number of times around the drum, and then both ends of the cable are fastened securely to the drum. I then attach near the drum a scraper or plow to that portion of the cable which has its end wrapped around the drum, and near the sheave-block I attach to the other side of the cable another scraper and begin scraping the overlying earth by revolving the drum in the direction that will unwind the wound-up portion of the cable, which, as will readily be seen, will cause one scraper to move toward the sheaves empty and at the same time drag the scraper toward the drum, and upon reversing the drum they willreturn and travel back and forth as the drum is reversed.

In using my improved excavator for stripping coal I first make a box-pit, if the surface of the ground adjacent to where I wish to commence operations furnishes no dumping-place, from fifty to seventy-five feet wide and from two hundred to three hundred feet long and down to the depth of the coal, and after removing the coal thus uncovered the machine is then set up on opposite sides of the pit, the drum and its frame A near the margin of the side of the pit, and the frame B, carrying the sheaves with the cable in them, is set up on the opposite side, as far away as the length of the cable will permit. Each of the frames A and B thus placed are then firmly fixed in position by setting them into the earth and having guy-ropes attached thereto and fastened to stakes driven into the ground in the rear of the frames. The scrapers are then securely fixed to the cables and the drum revolved, causing one scraper to move in the direction of the frame B empty and the other scraper to move in the direction of frame A, and when the latter reaches the box-pit its load is dumped into the pit. Then by reversing the revolution of the drum the scraper will be returned toward the sheaves empty and the other scraper brought forward until it reaches the pit and has deposited its load therein, when the revolution of the drum will be again reversed and the operation repeated, and in this way the moving back and forth of the scrapers may be carried on indefinitely or until the coal or other mineral is uncovered of the overlying earth and ready to be removed. hen the earth is removed down to the surface of the coal over as large an area as the machine will permit of, the frames are moved farther along the pit, and after another area of coal is stripped they are again moved along the pit and the operation repeated until the pit is filled, and after the coal is removed the frames are set over the holes left by removing the coal and another area of coal stripped by dumping the dirt into the place whence the coal was removed. The plows or scrapers used are such as are in general use.

By using my improved excavator and coalstripper I am able to take out coal at a profit which could only be mined at a loss if plows or scrapers were drawn by horses in the usual manner, the cost by the old method being about eight cents per yard for removing the earth, while my machine will do the work for one or two cents per yard.

I have described the frame B as carrying one block having two sheaves therein; but the said frame may be of any desired length and provided with as many blocks of two sheaves each as the length'of the drum will furnish space for a separate cable for each block, each being fastened at its ends to the drum with one end Wound around the drum a sufficient number of times to equal the distance between the pit and the sheaves, so that when it is unwound it will carry the scraper attached to it from the pit to the frame B preparatory to its being returned to the pit when the drum is reversed.

It will also be apparent that while I have described but one pit and the scrapers as traveling from that pit empty a corresponding pit may be made at the opposite end and the scrapers made to scrape the earth when going from as well as when traveling toward the drum.

I am aware that it is not new to attach plows and scrapers to a cable wound around a drum provided withmeans for revolving said drum, said cable being carried around sheaves and having pulleys or supports interposed between said drum and said sheaves, and I do not, therefore, broadly claim a combination consisting of a cable, a drum for drawing said cable, and sheaves for supporting it.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In an excavator consisting of a horizontal drum journaled in a supporting-frame, a pulley on the end of said drum, a cable attached to said drum by each end of said cable, one end being coiled several times around said drum, and a frame opposite said drum provided with horizontal ways, a block consisting of two parallel bars adapted to slide on said ways, said bars being joined at their centers by a piece at right angles to said bars and extending from said bars and between said ways, said piece adapted to hold said block in place on said ways, said block being ICC provided at each of its ends with a sheave adapted to receive said cable, substantially as shown and described.

2. In an excavator consisting of a horizontal drum jonrnaled in a supporting-frame, a pulley on the end of said drum, a cable attached to said drum by each end of said cable, one end being coiled several times around said drum, and a frame opposite said drum, the combination of horizontal ways rigidly secured to said frame and a block consisting of two parallel bars adapted to slide on said ways, said bars being joined at their centers by a piece at right angles to said bars and extending from said bars and between said ways, said piece adapted to hold said block in place on said ways, said block being provided at each of its ends with a sheave adapted to receive said cable, substantially as shown and described.

3. An excavator consisting of two parallel sills, two uprights mortised in each of said sills and converging toward each other, crosspieces joining the tops of said uprights, a horizontal drum journaled in said cross-pieces, a pulley on the end of said drum, a cable attached to said drum by each end of said cable, one end being coiled several times around said drum, a frame opposite said drum provided with horizontal ways and a block consisting of two parallel bars adapted to slide on said ways, said bars being joined at their centers by a piece at right angles to said bars and extending from said bars and between said ways, said piece adapted to hold said block in place on said ways, said block being provided at each of its ends with a sheave adapted to receive said cable, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony whereof I hereto afii mysignature in the presence of two witnesses.

McCLE-LLAN O. GUY.

Witnesses J. KNOX BARNEY, E. W. DOAN. 

